Deep Throat

A regular column on the essential buzz

As rains lashed Kolkata, the city was brought to a near sta­ndstill. Mayor Sovan Cha­­t­ter­jee was flooded with complaints soon after the rains sta­r­­ted and the crumbling civic infrastructure of the city star­ted falling apart. A resident of badly hit Behala, the mayor repo­rtedly pointed out that he too was a fellow sufferer and threw up his hands, saying he was as helpless and exasperated as the rest of the city. The Opposition has not taken kin­dly to his response and called him “ghobhir joler maach” (meaning deep water fish in Bengali, the epithet is used for a person who is an expert at deftly ducking issues).

The Missing Letter

Mystery continues to shroud the Tamil Nadu gutkha scam in which a minister and some top pol­ice officials allegedly colluded with merchants and allowed the sale of the banned commodity after taking bribes. Recently, the state’s chief secret­ary informed the high court that the government had received no letter from the Income Tax department on the involvement of police off­icers in the scam. The court was hearing a petition challenging the app­ointment of T. Rajendran as DGP and claiming his name figured in the letter that was handed over in July 2016. The IT department later clarified that it was in August 2016 that the letter had been passed on to the previous chief sec­retary P. Rama Mohana Rao and the then DGP Ashok Kumar.

The Elders Are Awol

PM Narendra Modi is said to have pul­led up his party MPs for low attendance in Parlia­ment, especially in the Upper House. In a recent meeting of the parliamentary party, he asked the Elders to be more alert and vocal, esp­ecially as they don’t have a majority there, causing problems in the passage of crucial bills. Sources say the PM noted several MPs don’t return to the House after lunch break and was upset that sometimes even the quorum was not complete. “It’s the government’s duty to get bills passed. It’s the ruling party MPs’ responsibility to be present and doing their job,” he told the sheepish lawmakers.

Overheard When CM Yogi Adityanath came to Delhi for President Kovind’s swearing-in, Amit Shah advised him to fight the growing perception of a gap between promise and performance in UP.